Trauma-Informed Approach

Background Information/Introduction
Trauma-informed teaching commences with a recognition that trauma can significantly influence student learning, behavior, and ability to make progress academically. Educators must strive to conceptualize the meaning of different student behaviors to develop more inclusive classrooms in this context. Teachers can reflect on their instructional pathways to establish ways to better support learners who could be struggling with trauma. Accordingly, the social discipline window constitutes a vital concept within the restorative practice, and it is employed in many diverse settings. It offers an approach for teachers to think about how they interact and communicate with others and students. Traditional discipline practices are infeasible in the contemporary classroom setting. Traditional practices were increasingly routine and entrenched into the learning environment partially because the capacity to employ an instant consequence was relatively less time-consuming for the individual doling out the punishment. However, today’s schools embrace restorative practices since they draw their validity within their capacity to empower learners to study from unacceptable decisions, comprehend their impact, and develop personally within their capacity to make better decisions and solve issues. This report considers and reflects on trauma-informed pedagogy and restorative initiatives, makes observations from a case scenario video and discusses key takeaways from a podcast, including reviewing the Edutopia.
Question 1: Trauma-Informed Approach
According to McInerney and McKlindon (2014), childhood trauma has several potentially overwhelming, direct, and immediate effects on the growth of the body and brain activity of a child. This ultimately affects their ability to learn. The authors suggest that the education system has greatly ignored the issue (McInerney & McKlindon, 2014). In this vein, children and adolescents experience positive and negative life experiences in their development stages. Psychological changes to the child’s brain and emotional or behavioral responses to traumatic events could interfere with their school engagement, learning, physical growth, and academic success. In order to cement this claim, the authors add that children are prone to these effects since their brain development is highly active. Based on neurological imaging, the size of the brain may reduce and end up developing physical challenges such as sensory processing difficulties that ultimately lead to problems in reading and writing (McInerney & McKlindon, 2014). Moreover, these learners experience interaction difficulties in adult life due to challenges building positive relationships. In addition, they do not easily respond to social cues due to their aggressiveness.
In this article, the authors categorize two specific evidence-based practices to address trauma prevalence in the classroom. The two broad categories include trauma-informed systems and trauma-specific treatment interventions. These approaches are collaboratively used in a school setting to address the trauma issue (McInerney & McKlindon, 2014). Trauma-informed approaches are the primary practice that schools and educators adopt to address the issue. The first practice incorporates cementing the school infrastructure and cultural domain. This includes promoting and supporting trauma-sensitive practices through assessing the needs of the staff, policy reviews, constructing community partnerships, strategic planning, planning for individual cases through confidentiality reviews, and evaluating efforts on an ongoing basis. These guidelines should be per the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The second practice is staff training on experiences of trauma, such as identifying external support, assisting in regulating emotions of the traumatized, and strengthening staff children’s relationships, especially those experiencing trauma. The third approach is linking the traumatized to mental health professionals. The staff should have access to clinical support by having an opportunity to participate in peer discussions. They get to learn and practice effectively to monitor students (Sprick et al., 2021). Students and families should be referred to effective mental health consultants. The school staff and management should refer them to help build trusting relationships. The fourth practice involves giving traumatized students’ academic instructions. The fifth approach is maintaining standardized school protocols, policies, and procedures. Disciplined policies that address trauma in a school setting should model non-violent activities, educate school rules, limit disruptions, balance accountability in comprehending traumatic behavior, and adopt consistent regulations and consequences (Sprick et al., 2021).
Conversely, these evidence-based practices prompt a healthy balance between expected outcomes such as permissive, no backbone teaching, classroom management, enabling, and effective teaching. They assist a teacher in becoming a ‘warm demander.’ According to Lisa Delphit, a ‘warm demander’ teacher has many expectations, can efficiently convince students, and assist them in reaching their aspirations in a disciplined and standardized environment (Delphit, 2013). To add to these claims, McInerney and McKlindon support that a ‘warm demander’ teacher should: empower, not disempower; offer unconditional optimistic regard; maintain standard expectations; check assumptions, detect, and question; act as a relationship coach, and offer guiding chances and positive participation (2014).
Based on existing evidence, it can be deduced that trauma-informed approach has a unique feature. It commences with an initial response where the parties with the issue are presented to a disciplinary body. The second phase is a disciplinary action once the principal has gathered facts and determined the severity and magnitude of the issue. The third tenet incorporates long and short-term implications where the involved may perform poorly in academics (McInerney & McKlindon, 2014).
Question 2: Social Discipline Window (Wachtel and Costello)
A social discipline window is a framework of restorative practice concepts used to communicate variable aspects. It allows the learners to think independently and interact with others. The restorative approach requires control or limit and high-level support, nurture, and encouragement. According to the International Institute of Restorative Practices, these practices aim to construct a community through conflict and tension management approaches which entail repairing harm or threat and building positive relationships (Augustine et al., 2018). In classroom management, restorative practices could achieve several benefits, such as enhancing problem-solving skills and communal sense of belonging, minimizing mistrust and fear between adults and children, and offering sympathy treatment and respect to young people. Augustine and colleagues further suggest that the restorative program over time has assisted reduce expulsion and suspension cases of black children in most schools (Augustine et al., 2018). These plans in a classroom context should be concrete and measurable to lower cases of expulsion and suspension. In this vein, Wachtel and Costello is a programmed book to help teachers make the best out of their students at any level in a classroom setting. The primary message is that “whether the students are ignorant, stealing, swearing, disruptive, or bullies,” the authors offer a constructive way to allow students to perceive the consequences of their behavior and the effect they have on other people (Costello et al., 2010). it has the background to assist students in building positive relationships and an open mind. It gives the basic principles of restorative approaches, which belittle, punish and praise the promotion of a positive relationship.
Question 3: Oakland Schools Video
In the video ‘Restorative Justice in Oakland Schools”, Sarah Glasband incorporates the restorative circle approach for community support and appreciation of shared values (Glasband, 2012). The first approach includes an opening ceremony which installs a connection where everyone freely talks of ...